Colocating Fosters Collaboration, Opportunity
Colocating business and engineering in the new Research and Economic Development Center (REDC) at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is designed to increase interaction between faculty and students in the Sam and Irene Black School of Business and the School of Engineering. As a result, collaborative programs have been established and more are expected.
“To date, Penn State Behrend has created two programs that offer cross-functional educational opportunities for our business and engineering students,” Diane Parente, associate professor of management, said. “Both the new Technical Sales minor and the Product Realization and Entrepreneurship course are in line with the college’s objectives in housing its business and engineering schools together in one building, the REDC.”
Beginning this fall in response to a national employer trend, Penn State Behrend began offering a new Technical Sales minor within the Black School of Business. The 21-credit minor is designed to acquaint students enrolled in the college’s School of Engineering programs with the fundamentals of industrial or technical sales.
“The technical sales minor targets engineering students who wish to expand upon their business and sales skills,” Parente said. “Graduates will have the business knowledge required to pursue careers in technical sales, as direct sales engineers or as manufacturing representatives for technical product producers.”
Consisting of upper-level management and marketing courses, students will learn the principles of behavioral, operations and project management, quality control, leadership behavior and decision making, plus gain an understanding of customer service, inventory management, transportation, purchasing, international logistics, total cost analysis and marketing objectives, as well as other core skills.
In December 2000, Penn State Behrend received a $176,000 Learning Excellence Grant from the General Electric Fund of Fairfield, Conn., to create a multidisciplinary program that integrated its business and engineering schools. This grant has supported the research that led to the establishment of the Technical Sales minor, the development of an integrated business and engineering course—notably the Product Realization and Entrepreneurship class, as well as faculty development and team-teaching initiatives.
The semester-long, three-credit Product Realization and Entrepreneurship course took just over two years to develop and was first offered in January 2003. It is available only to seniors, who must submit an application. Students who are accepted kick-off the course with an intensive two-day team-building and leadership training seminar, where they also participate in a variety of workshops with entrepreneurs and business professionals.
Throughout the semester, students work in teams to develop a complete business and marketing plan for their initial concept. They learn brainstorming strategies and attend lectures on financing new business ventures, new product development, business plan development, market research, patents and intellectual property, and development of a comprehensive sales and marketing plan, among others.
“Experience shows that the most successful entrepreneurs are those who have a clear understanding of all phases of a product, from design to manufacture to sale,” Jana Goodrich, lecturer in management and marketing, said. “The course encourages business and engineering students to work together in teams—business students learn about engineering and engineering students learn about business. The result is students who develop the interdisciplinary skills that are necessary in the workplace or as an entrepreneur.”
The Product Realization and Entrepreneurship course is team-taught by Goodrich and Robert Weissbach, associate professor of engineering.
The $30 million, 160,000-square-foot Research and Economic Development Center houses the Black School of Business and the School of Engineering at Penn State Behrend, making the college one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to house its business and engineering schools under a single roof.
The Black School of Business is accredited by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which is the leading accrediting agency for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting. The School of Engineering offers three associate and seven baccalaureate degree programs that are each accredited by either the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) or the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
For more information about the Research and Economic Development Center at Penn State Behrend, visit www.pserie.psu.edu/redc online.